OC Transpo fare hike will cost Ottawa school bus authority extra $4.6 million this school year

A yellow school bus in Ottawa is seen in this undated photo. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) is facing a $4.6 million pothole in its budget this school year if OC Transpo's plan to eliminate discounted youth passes is approved as part of the 2025 City of Ottawa budget.

"The proposed OC Transpo fare changes would result in a significant shortfall in our 2024-25 budget," Cindy Owens, interim general manager of the OSTA, says.

Council is set to finalize the 2025 City of Ottawa budget on Wednesday, which includes a proposed five per cent hike in transit fares.

The transit service's draft budget, approved by the Transit Commission two weeks ago, includes eliminating the youth discount pass of $99.25 a month, and charging riders ages 11 to 19 the adult monthly pass fee of $135. OC Transpo is also set to eliminate the free transit for children ages 11 and 12.

In a memo to the Board of Directors at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board, the head of the Ottawa school bus consortium said if the fare increase is implemented on Jan. 1, 2025, as currently proposed, it would add $4.6 million to this year's budget.

"Applying the proposed increases to a full school year results in an $8.4 million overall increase, representing an increase of 58.6 per cent to our annual budget for student passes," Owens writes.

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority oversees transportation for more than 74,000 students in Ottawa's two largest school boards.

The OSTA says 20,000 of those students use OC Transpo. The consortium purchases bus passes for students requiring transportation, but no school bus is available. To help deal with a bus driver shortage for the past few school years, the OSTA has been moving secondary school students to public transit instead of relying on school buses.

Owens says in addition to the budget increases for school boards, a number of students granted compassionate passes through the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act would be affected.

"The proposed fare increases will inevitably lead to significant cuts to the number of students these programs can support in the new year," Owens writes.

The Transit Commission directed staff to work with school boards to develop the equivalent of a U-Pass for students under 18 years of age. Owens is calling on the city to delay any changes to youth bus passes until an agreement is reached on an "alternative to current fare proposals."

"I have sent a letter to the Transit Commission and City Councillors proposing that no changes be applied to our school board passes until we can come to an agreement with the city about an alternative to the current fare proposals," Owens writes. "I have also contacted the Ministry of Education to bring this fare increase to their attention and ask about the possibility of in-year funding to address our budget shortfall."

"Their initial response was noncommittal."